Frandsen still resents treatment by Phils

Nationals left fielder Kevin Frandsen bats during a game against the Cardinals last month. Frandsen decided to test free agency and joined Washington when the Phils indicated he might start the season in the minors. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

PHILADELPHIA — Kevin Frandsen put principle over money when the Phillies tried to use him as a procedural pawn to gain roster flexibility late in spring training.

It turned out he not only got the money, but is getting it from a team undoubtedly in a better position to reach the postseason in 2014.

Frandsen, who led the majors in pinch hits last season as a Phillie, returned to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since he chose free agency over a minor-league assignment in late March and quickly signed with the Nationals. He wasn’t in the starting lineup for Washington — Tyler Moore, who kills Cliff Lee, was starting in left field — but Frandsen will see time in the outfield with Bryce Harper lost for at least two months to thumb surgery.

Still, the position Frandsen was put in by the Phillies — to choose between his $900,000 guaranteed salary and the chance that he would start the season in Triple-A, and walking away in order to make sure he was a big-leaguer — has left bitterness.

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“I was pissed,” he said prior to the start of the teams’ three-game series Friday. “If they thought I was roster flexibility, that’s what they thought. But I didn’t think that of myself. I earned my way to being on the bench, to being a vital part over there. That’s what I thought, and that’s the feeling I have and I’m going to go with it.

“Blindsided is a good way (to put it). I was like the ball boy on the sideline that got run over by someone.”

Frandsen hinted that he wasn’t happy that the Phillies dismissed him as an option at third base in 2013 — he made just four starts there after making 49 in 2012. Instead they shelled out millions for Michael Young, whose bat was mediocre and fielding not even that. After the Phils decided to trade Young, Cody Asche became the third baseman.

Frandsen has landed on his feet. He entered the weekend batting .289 in 43 plate appearances and the Nats are 5-2 in his seven starts in left field. Interestingly, the Phillies’ two infield reserves, Jayson Nix and Freddy Galvis, were a combined 6-for-61 at the plate entering Friday. The Phils’ right-handed-hitting backups — Nix and John Mayberry Jr. — were 9-for-52. Add to that Asche’s struggles, and it’s understandable if Frandsen wants to say, “I told you so.”

“I think I could have helped last year,” he said. “Just from what I did the year before. I never got an opportunity. It sucks, because I want Cody to do well. I really want him to do well — as a fan, and as a friend of his. I hope things turn around, maybe not this weekend but soon after, that’d be great.

“It’s tough to leave your buddies, but to walk into a clubhouse like this with so much talent and eagerness to win and a great ballpark, it’s nice, too.”